


Home is Where the Heart is

by Saraiguma



Category: Skullgirls
Genre: Delusions, F/F, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 21:37:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraiguma/pseuds/Saraiguma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peacock made a promise to her best friend, and she intended to keep it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is Where the Heart is

**Author's Note:**

> This is really dumb and bad and I'm sorry

“What a bunch of maroons!” Peacock cackled, exhaling a cloud of acrid smoke as she scanned the now silent nightclub.  
“Great job boss!” Avery chirped excitedly from the crown of the young girl’s hat “What are we lookin’ for?”  
Peacock growled and flicked the small blue bird back into her hat. “We’re not LOOKING for anything you crumb bum. I came here to deal with Medicis and I’m making sure none of them are just pretendin’ to be dealt with.” The sentence was punctuated with a swift kick to the torso of a nearby man, huge frame draped with a once fashionable outfit now stained beyond recovery with blood and soot.  
“These goons weren’t nothin’ ta you boss! You cleared this clip joint out real nice.”  
“It ain’t enough Avery!” she shouted, digging through the pockets of one ruined suit after another. “It don’t matter how many trigger men we take out, we’ve never even gotten CLOSE to Vitale, never mind the big kahuna himself.”  
She began angrily pacing “We clear out a gin joint and two more pop up. We take out a dozen thugs and 3 dozen more get hired, nothing we do seems to even put a DENT in these-” her ranting was interrupted by the sound of distant sirens drawing nearer.  
“We gotta cheese it boss!” Avery squawked, pulling his hat over his eyes “If the coppers catch us we’ll go straight into the slammer. I ain’t the kind for prison life boss! I’m too delicate! I’d never make it out alive! I’ll mphmmphmph”  
Avery noticed the thumb and forefinger of the young woman on his beak, then gulped down the rest of his sentence and retreated to the interior of her hat. “I know what I’m doin’ you crumb bum!” she shouted after him.  
She started moving towards the hole in the back wall she’d entered by, disappointed despite how well the night had gone. Just as she cleared the opening she stopped short. There was one more thing that needed to be done and it was something that always put a smile on her face.  
She reached under her dress and pulled out an impossibly large bomb and laid it on the ground and giving it a nudge with her boot. She left the club a little faster than the first time and managed to turn into an alley just as the fuse burned through.  
The explosion was deafening and the gloomy New Meridian night momentarily resembled noon, she knew if she turned she’d see a fountain of rubble and fire blooming from what little bit of the building had managed to cling to the foundation, but she’d seen it enough times.  
Peacock threw the spent cigar into a nearby dumpster then approached an open manhole, the smile fading from her face as she slid into it and replaced the cover.

 

“Honey, I’m home!” Peacock joyfully called out as she pushed through the secret door leading to the hideout.  
She threw her hat to a waiting hat rack that dutifully placed it back on her noggin and was only a few steps in when she heard a clear voice from the kitchen “Welcome home Peacock! Dinner is nearly ready, Why don’t you help me out by setting the table?”  
Peacock couldn’t even muster a snarky comment and responded with a tremendously sincere “Sure thing! What’s for dinner?” grabbing a setting and bustling over to the small table.  
She started thinking about the mafia and the Skullheart as she set the table, how the Medici mafia had unwittingly set into motion events that would shake Canopy Kingdom. How the Skullgirl had wrought destruction on the city, and what her minions had done to Peacock’s family. Doc Avian, Big Band, Ileum, Hive, Leduc. Everyone she loved was killed by a busty pervert in a nurse costume that Peacock never even managed to track down.  
Peacock had always had a penchant for rushing in without considering the consequences though. It was how she ended up a refugee instead of a maid, it was how she lost her old limbs and earned her new ones, it was how she lost her family, and it was how she’d been forced to kill-  
Marie laid a tray on the table, smiling. “I made your favorite Peacock. Cheeseburgers, chicken wings, and cheese fries.” she placed a selection on Peacock’s plate before her own, then sat down to begin eating.  
“How was your day Peacock?” Marie asked after taking a bite from a burger and wiping her mouth with a napkin  
“Patricia” Peacock said in a low voice, staring at nothing in particular  
“Sorry?” Marie looked concerned she’d offended the girl  
“She always called me Patricia, up to the end. She never made this garbage for me, no matter how much I loved it. She’d always try ta make me eat salad and such with her” Peacock’s voice became angrier and angrier  
“Boss, maybe you should calm-” Avery started before Peacock plucked him from his resting place and threw him at a wall  
“Patricia, what’s the matter?” Marie had risen from her seat, hand outsretched  
“WHAT’S WRONG IS YOU’RE NOT MARIE!” Peacock screeched, hot tears starting to roll down her cheeks  
“Patricia of course I am, why don’t you just sit down and-” Marie started towards Peacock but was stopped short by a burst of white hot energy projecting from the robotic head of the bird whose namesake she shared.  
“DON’T THINK YOU CAN FOOL ME, YOU’RE NOT THE REAL MARIE BECAUSE I KILLED HER. BECAUSE I LET HER BECOME THE SKULLGIRL, BECAUSE I LET EVERYONE DOWN.” The tears rolled freely from her empty eye sockets as burst after burst of energy pierced first Marie, then the decrepit mannequin in a ratty maid’s outfit revealed by the barrage.  
Peacock fell to the doll’s side, embracing it. “I’m so sorry Marie.” the young girl cried “I screwed up big time and you paid for it, and now I can’t even finish what you started.” her words became more distorted by her sobs before she became completely unintelligible, eventually crying herself to sleep.

 

Peacock placed a gloved finger on the map, having already decided on today’s target. “We’re gonna hit this bail bondsman, it’s how Lorenzo keeps his boys outta jail without getting his hands dirty”  
Marie pursed her lips and nodded “It seems sound Patricia, but do you think it will be safe?”  
Peacock cracked a shiny steel smile “Of course it will Marie, I know what I’m doin. I’ll stay safe and be back before dinner. What are you making?”  
“It’s going to be a surprise” Marie grinned, before giving Peacock a hug and a kiss on the cheek “For the returning hero.”  
“Sounds fantastic!” Peacock shouted as she rushed through the broken wreckage of Lab 8 towards the secret entrance. “Let’s go Avery, we’ve got work to do!”  
“Sure thing boss!” The bird chirped as the door swung shut behind them “We’ll show those Medicis who’s boss!”


End file.
